Following Canada's Equestrian Team

My postings are all over the place these days, which is a testament to how busy the days are and how quickly the time flies by. Tina and I have lost all concept of time, and the world that exists outside of our Greenwich bubble. Instead of Thursday, it is Dressage Grand Prix day. And wow…talk about crowds! I’ll post some pics later when I get a chance, but I couldn’t believe how packed the stands are. I’ve read some stories on the BBC website about some of the venues having empty seats, but that sure isn’t true for Greenwich Park.

Our Jumpers had a media conference today at the venue, which by all accounts went well. Tina proved her prowess in the Assistant Team Leader position by managing to get to COC Outfitting first thing when they opened at 8am, and getting a jacket & shirt for Reserve Jumper athlete Yann Candele whose team kit unfortunately is waaaaay too big for him. Tina was able to hustle back to the venue just in time to hand over the exchanges for Yann. Way to go Tina!

EC President (and former Team Leader) Mike Gallagher arrived yesterday, so I took him to the Accreditation office at the venue today to pick up his LOCOG dog tags, and take him on a bit of a tour of the venue. Managed to get him into the stables too! I think I just might be starting to get the hang of this Team Leader gig :-). It was nice for Mike to be able to say Hi to the athletes and support staff, and to also see first-hand the incredible job the organizers have done with the facilities at Greenwich Park.

I then took Mike to the Queen’s House, where his accreditation gives him access to the Olympic Family Lounge which I hear is very swish-swish and has excellent catering. This is where our Owners can go as well, and can walk out onto the balcony for one of the best views in the house. Sadly, my accred does not give me access….so I had to sadly wave goodbye. Instead, I made my way for the first time to the International Teams Tent which is hosted by the British Equestrian Federation. I say “tent”, but really it is in side the Royal Maritime Museum and quite impressive! They have really done an excellent job with ample seating, catering and large flatscreen tvs around the room showing live coverage. I hope the athletes get a chance to check it out and enjoy it.

I’m writing this as the first block of 7 riders are underway in the main arena. Jacqueline Brooks and D’Niro were the first ones to kick things off for Canada. They looked right at home in the main arena, and Jacquie looked ecstatic after her ride. They finished on a score of 68.70%.

At one point I saw the USEF’s Team Leader Jim Wolf walk in with a very large foam “Dressage is #1” finger (a tip of the hat to the now famous “Colbert Report” episode that aired the other month. Apparently one of the US fans was wearing this in the stands however the pointing finger was so big that those seated behind the fan couldn’t see! Too funny…..I think the USEF could be onto a real fundraiser idea as I’m sure the many thousands of fans here at Greenwich Park would love to have their picture taken wearing this.

Next on deck was David Marcus and Capital. Unfortunately the weather chose not to cooperate and as the pair entered the arena the heavens opened up. The ITT tent where I was sitting has a glass roof, and the noise was deafening because the rain was coming down that hard. In fact, it was hard to make out David & Capital on the TV screens! The pair looked as elegant as always, and were putting in quite a solid test until Capital became scared along the short wall. I’m not entirely sure what spooked him….but I suspect it might have been all of the water pouring off the tarps that protect the tv cameras which are situated relatively close to the ring at the corners.

David remained unbelievably posied and in control as he attempted to reassure Capital – but unfortunately they were forced to leave the ring. HUGE kudos go to David for remaining so poised and gracious in the mixed zone. The sign of a true Olympic athlete. Later that day, Tina and I bought flowers for both David and Capital’s owner, Deborah Kinzinger, to leave in their hotel rooms. In speaking with David today, he spoke of how much the outpouring of affection has touched his heart….so those who have been leaving messages for that athletes on their Facebook walls, Twitter, email – it really does mean a lot to them!!

After David’s ride, Mike Tina and I went to visit Hawley Bennett-Awad and her husband Gamal Awad. Hawley is feeling better, and actually walking now (albeit it slowly). In keeping with her true tough & fierce spirit, Hawley is actually doing an interview today with CBC to update everyone on her condition and reassure her fans that both she and Ginny are well. And imagine our surprise with Hawley, along with her husband Gamal, came down to meet us!! She is one tough cookie…and already looking to the future and planning competitions for later this year.

Speaking of which, Eventing Team Manager Fleur Tipton sent me an email to let me know all of the Canadian Eventing horses made it back to Newark, New Jersey in fine form and are now finishing out their quarantine before heading back to home sweet home. I can’t say enough what an honour and privilege it was to work with our Eventing Team who are just amazingly professional, organized, friendly and focused on their jobs. They really are an inspiration and make me incredibly proud to be Canadian.

I’ll be posting another blog tonight….Ashley Holzer & Breaking Dawn had a super ride today!!!

I’m writing this the day after cross-country day, with a heavy heart for the Canadian Eventing Team who experienced a pretty rough day overall, but also with a lot of pride for how they carried themselves through the disappointment and of course for Jessica Phoenix & Exponential who had a terrific ride.

The day started off well, with blue skies, sunshine and a cool breeze.

Our intrepid assistant team leader Tina Collins arrived at the venue box office early to pick up the Friends & Family tickets for our athletes, then stood outside for 2 1/2 hours to greet the family & friends of our athletes and hand their tickets to them. What a trooper!

And many MANY thanks to Eventing Team Manager Fleur Tipton who managed to find an extra ticket for Tina so that she could watch the cross-country (because of the very low # of Accreditations Canada received, Tina unfortunately doesn’t have one).

I made a quick trip to the stables to make sure that everything was kopasetic with Eventing and Dressage, then next stop was to the Sports Information Desk to make sure I handed in the Training Venue Pass forms for the next day. The latter is part of my daily routine as LOCOG won’t allow you to indicate multiple days on the form. So each and every day I diligently go to the Sports Information Desk to hand in my 3 forms (we are allowed a max of 3 per day). But gold star for me for being so organized – I have photocopies for each support team member that is using a venue pass, each in a separate plastic folder per person, and pen in the date.

I made sure to grab a map of the cross-country course since I hadn’t yet had a chance to walk it, and today Tina and I would be playing host to Canada’s chef de mission Mark Tewksbury who was coming with his partner to check out all this crazy horse stuff. What made this even more special is that it was the 20-year anniversary of Mark winning his gold medal in Barcelona – whoohoo!! I was hoping to get him a Cadbury chocolate gold medal, but sadly the morning got away from me and I didn’t have a chance to pick one up.

The throngs of people arriving was just amazing! But luckily we were able to find Mark and Rob without too many problems and off we went to check out some fences.

Mark was suitably impressed, and I think he managed to snap quite a few pictures in the short time he could spend with us before whizzing off to Canada Olympic House for Canada’s celebration of the first Olympic Medal at these Games (Bronze for Emilie Heymans & Jennifer Abel of Diving).

Unfortunately Mark wasn’t able to see any Canadians ride. As we were eagerly awaiting Hawley Bennett-Awad and Gin & Juice, we heard the announcer came on the loudspeakers to say they had a fall at Fence # 3. What a horrible sinking feeling, especially since we were a looooooong way away. Thankfully both horse and rider are ok, with Hawley suffering a fractured tailbone which while very painful, just requires rest & healing. I hear that Ginny tried to continue the course on her own, but was eventually corralled 🙂

It was funny because when the announcer explained to the crowd that the rules are once a rider has fallen, they are eliminated and cannot continue the course, I explained to Mark that Eventers are cut from some pretty tough cloth….they could have a bone sticking out of them and they would clamber back on and finish all the jumps!

Bad luck seemed to dog us Canadians throughout the day with Peter Barry and Rebecca Howard also experiencing falls, but both riders & horses walking away without any longterm problems.

As you know, Jessica Phoenix & Exponential totally smoked the course! And when I asked Jessica at the end of the day what it was like, she said it was a blast.

So all in all, a rough day, but also one where Tina and I felt so much immense pride for our athletes. They were incredible and dealt with the emotional rollercoaster with such grace & professionalism. And terrific to see our Dressage guys clambering all over the course in support of their Eventing comrades. And it was such an incredibly nice experience to have people from all nations come up to Tina and I asking with genuine concern and affection how our riders were, particularly Hawley.

I’ll leave you with some pics of the day. Funny thing being here at the Olympics within a team support role….you actually don’t get much of a chance to see the actual competition!

Greeters for the Eventers galloping into the main stadium

The Sundial jump immediately before galloping into the main stadium

Tina being a rebel and standing on the seats to get a better view of the course

I will never get tired of this view!

The amazing jumbotron – the image quality is spectacular! And the ariel cameras provide incredible coverage

Zee Dutch!!

The Queen’s House where our valuable owners are treated to fabulous food, wine and the best seats in the house!

Very cool moon jump at the top of the hill by the Observatory

They say there were almost 70,000 people at Greenwich Park – I believe it!!

The Fam out cheering on Zara Phillips

Zara in action smoking through the course

This helped immensely with the heartbreak of seeing our Canadians end their Olympic experience prematurely

It was pretty difficult to get up close to the jumps because of the crowds

The fence that took out a few people, including Hawley Bennett-Awad & Peter Barry

Team USA getting prepped in the warm-up

Love the purple flowers with the grey horse.

Canada’s Rebecca Howard & Riddle Master getting ready for business

Loving Groom’s Dana Cooke’s handiwork with the maple leaf design quartermarks!

I still think David O’Connor looks best in the red & white

Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt heading to the warm-up

Rebecca Howard & Riddle Master at the first jump

Nearing the finish line

Japan is enjoying a great games

Our dressage folks hangin’ with the Chef de Mission

the long walk home. Have I mentioned yet just how friendly and helpful the British army has been? They have been brilliant!!

I’m squeezing in another quick blog before I have to head off to find the Cosport Will-call office with Dressage Team Manager Christine Peters and Assistant Team Leader Tina Collins.

Today is Dressage Day 2 for Eventing. What started off as a brilliant day with blue skies, sunshine and very comfortable 20 degrees weather has turned into colder, blustery, thundery and lightneny (sp!) rain.

The day started VERY early for Tina, who had to be at the venue box office at 8 am to pick up tickets. LOCOG have a terrific program where they make available 2 tickets per athlete for every session in which they are competing. These can only be ordered by the respective National Olympic Committee (NOC). Our Canadian Olympic Committee takes care of this, and we are VERY fortunately to have Suncor/Petro-Canada’s generosity as they are paying for ALL of these tickets for every Canadian athlete. How great is that!?!?!?!

Not so great are the many “hiccups” LOCOG is experiencing with this first-time-ever program. This has lead to a lot of anxiety both for the COC, and for us. The tickets for today were not made available for purchase until 6am. Luckily the COC are amazingly awesome (big shout-out to COC Ticketing Officer Allan Koyanagi!!!) and they have been ordering some of the best tickets in the house and getting them in blocks so all Canadians can sit together.

Tina told me that we rec’d all 10 tickets for today (we have 5 Eventing athletes). Ireland and New Zealand were also standing with Tina to get theirs. The Kiwis only rec’d 1/2 of theirs, and Ireland rec’d non……yikes!

Then Tina spent the next 3 hours standing at the box office to make sure that all of the Canadian Eventing Friends & Family rec’d their tickets. Tina – you rock. I’m going to put in an immediate request to double your salary 🙂

Royalty was in the house as the Princess Royal and Prince Phillip were on hand to see Zara Phillips lay down a lovely ride.

Tina and I had the opportunity to see Jessica Phoenix and Exponential’s test. They looked as elegant as always, but unfortunately had a couple of small bobbles. But still finished with a very respectable score of 54.80 penalty points.

Then the weather took a nasty turn. Blustery winds, rain, thunder, lightening. Thankfully Tina and I had already made our way to Devonport House (Grooms Hotel) to work upstairs in the office area and catch up on emails and get some blogging done……but I feel badly for anyone who was in the training and warm-up rings. They actually had to hold the competition at least twice.

As I write this, Rebecca Howard & Riddle Master should have already gone…..so I’ll have to look up her score.

Our Dressage team are all settled in and enjoying their first day of training and checking out the rings. I managed to grab a couple of shots of Ashley and Diane.

Here are a few pics….and then onto cross-country day tomorrow. Canada chef de mission Mark Tewksbury and assistant chef de mission Sylvie Bernie are hoping to make it out – yay!

T

Hawley Bennett-Awad on her way to the main competition ring on Day 1

Personal best!!

Peter Barry chillaxin’ before his dressage test

The picture of poise & grace under pressure.

Thailand’s Nina Ligon in the mixed zone following her ride.

What an amazing time!!!
We had 5 athletes walk in the Opening Ceremonies: Ashley Holzer, Jacquie Brooks, David Marcus, Tiffany Foster and Ian Millar.

It took a bit of coordinating, which caused me stress during the day as I wanted to make sure that everything was good for the athletes. Jacquie and David had their ceremony pants at the Village (they had to be altered), so wanted to make sure they knew where to go to get their pants.

Tiffany was coming in by train from Belgium, and Ian was coming in from the Jumper training camp in Newbury. The Jumpers haven’t done their Outfitting yet, so everything had to be timed so that Tiffany & Ian could come to the hotel to try on their clothes before we headed to the Olympic Village. And to make sure that we had some exchange options, Tina dragged all of the Jumper Grooms & Support Staff duffel bags up to our hotel room.

As luck would have it, all of Tiffany’s clothes fit her (phew!!), but Ian’s shirt & pants were too big so we dug through the other bags to see if we could find some smaller sizes. After a bit of panic, success!!

We managed to grab a quick bite at the hotel, then set off on the DLR for the Olympic Village. The train ride was surprisingly quiet – -I wasn’t sure if it would be packed so I had planned for a few extra minutes just in case.

When we arrived at Stratford Station, the crowds then appeared. Exciting!

We then made our way through the crowds to the Olympic Village. It was definitely fun to see all the people heading towards Olympic Stadium for the ceremonies.

My job was to deliver Tiffany & Ian to the Canada residence building at 8:15pm, and we arrived at 8:05pm. Result! I even had time to make sure that Jacquie’s and David’s pants were waiting for them at Team Services. Even better result, a few minutes later the Dressage athletes arrived and had time to change their pants!

Mark Tewskbury & Sylvie Bernier (Chef de Mission and Asst. Chef de Mission) then gathered all of the Canadians for a rousing pep talk. Mark reminded everyone that a competition like the Olympic Games is a collection of great highs, but also can have great lows….so prepare and embrace for both. He also recounted a funny (although morbid!) story to prepare us for what can go wrong at the Opening Ceremonies despite everyone’s best efforts. Mark’s first Olympics was 1988 Seoul, Korea, and for the Opening Ceremonies the organizers had 200+ white doves to symbolize peace. They released the doves prior to the lighting of the torch, and Mark said it was quite a moving moment as the doves soared then settled to perch on railings, the cauldron etc. Moving in a different way was when the torch came into the stadium, and the cauldron was lit……and burning doves started to fall from the sky. Thankfully nothing like that happened here!

What was really nice is that Mark explained they were arranging the marching formation to have the first row of 8 with past Olympians. As Mark put it, since the 2012 Canadian team is comprised of over 64% rookies, COC wanted to have the veterans lead the team in. Mark then introduced all of the Olympians and you should have heard the chatter amongst the athletes when Mark introduced 10-time record holder Ian Millar – whoohoo!!!!!

After the pep talk, we then started off on the march out of the village. Lining the route were schoolkids who went crazy when they saw Canada! Many of the athletes stopped to sign autographs, or run along and high-five their outstretched hands. There is definitely LOTS of love for Canada here!

Taking a pic of the army taking an pic of us. Have I mentioned yet how friendly the British army are?? They do all of the security at Greenwich Park, and they are so happy to see Canadians! I’ve already made a deal with one army girl….I will trade her one of the fancy Canadian pins and she will buy me a bag of Minstrels chocolate (my fave).

One of the many Canada banners along the route of excited schoolkids. Notice what’s in the bottom right-hand corner! (hint: VERY Canadian!!)

Ashley Holzer with some of the performers

Getting closer! You can see Ian Millar & flagbearer Simon Whitfield in this shot.

In the chute

We’re in! This is the holding area in the centre after our march into the stadium.

those are real meadowland flowers!!

There were some very cool Opening Ceremonies outfits

Go Team Canada!!

Ian with Chef de Mission Mark Tewksbury

The Social Media Games! Everybody texting, facebooking, tweeting 🙂

Wills & Kate!! (oh…and the Queen too)

Go Team India!

Tiffany, David, Ashley and Jacquie by the Olympic flame.

As you can see from this small selection of photos, it was a brilliant night. We were on our feet from about 7:30pm – 2:30am, so needless to say I was a cripple by the end of it (and well into the next day!) but so totally worth it.

Ian was a total rockstar during the ceremonies…all of the Canadian Olympians wanted their photo with him and Ian was so accommodating, and had a fun time posing for all the pics!

Ian with Synchro

At the end of the evening, Ian was whisked away to do an interview with CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme, which appeared on the National that night. Tiffany and I made our way back to the Village, where I dropped Tiffany off at the Athletes Dining Hall (it was packed!), and I made my way back to the Canadian building. Ian and I agreed to meet at the “Moose” when he was finished with interviews so we could catch the DLR train back to Greenwich.

The last train was 2:30am, so when the clock started to creep up to 2am, my anxiety started to rise when there was still no sign of Ian. Our dressage gang showed up, and chowed down some cereal (thanks COC!) before they rushed off to catch the Tube.

As I started to panic, COC was able to locate Ian who was making his way back from the CTV broadcast studio. He arrived at the “Moose” at 2:10, then it was a (very!)) mad dash to the DLR station platform. My feet and legs were killing me from all the standing, but I knew my mission was to get Captain Canada safely on the train so that we could meet up with his car back at the hotel (Ian was going back to the Jumper training camp that night, Tiffany was staying in the Village before heading back the next day). I kept thinking “this is how marathon runners must feel” with each agonizing step I took….except marathoners of course aren’t quite as nicely “padded” as I am 🙂

We managed to get onto the training with 5 mins. to spare – Woohoo!!! A quick call to Assistant Team Leader Tina Collins confirmed that Ian’s car was there and waiting for him.

You just never know who you will meet on the train! These guys were part of the “Industrial Revolution” show in the Opening Ceremonies.

And I leave you with this great shot. It appeared on the screen at the end of the Ceremonies.

Sorry for the lack of postings for the past couple of days. It’s been an eventful 48 hours that have passed by at warp speed. It’s now 11:45pm as I write this, and tomorrow is going to be a craaaaazy day (Eventing Jog & Opening Ceremonies!), so I’m going to paraphrase below, include some pics, then hit the hay.

The following are excellent examples that a great deal of the “behind-the-scenes” stuff that happens at a Games is rarely anything to do with the horses & competition itself.

In no particular order……

1. I drowned my iPhone. While I do have a COC-issued phone, I always keep my iPhone with me in the event that someone needs to reach me and don’t have my COC number. Not to mention I can take advantage of writing some emails when I have free WIFI, acts as a quick backup camera, and more importantly has my list of contacts.

So when you accidentally “drown” it while in bed trying to multitask by writing emails, answering texts on the COC phone and having my squeezie-top water bottle beside me…..it’s not good. Squeezie-tops are great, so long as you remember to actually close them. When you don’t, I found out that the bottle quickly empties itself all over your bed coverings, soaking anything in its’ path. My phone has been sitting in a bag of rice for 3 days and tomorrow will be judgement day when I charge it and try to turn it on.

2. It’s amazing just how reliant we are to the Internet. When you are part of support staff at a major games, quadruple that. And sadly the internet at the hotel has been pretty non-existent. In fact, the only reason I’m able to post this is because I figured out how to turn on the “mobille hotspot” on my COC phone. It’s not super-fast, but at least it works. The grooms hotel, on the other hand, has FABULOUS wifi…..but we’re not there very often to take advantage. So that is partially why it’s proven to be extremely difficult to blog. When I do get Internet, I’m furiously sending and replying to emails.

3. Paperwork. There is LOTS of it to be done! Applications for venue passes, print outs of schedules, forms to complete for clothing exchanges.

4. Our Eventers had another opportunity to ride in the main competition ring today with the dressage ring all set up, judges booth in place, video screen active, and music playing. Whoever is the DJ is awesome! Stone Roses, Specials, Madness, Spandau Ballet, Pet Shop Boys. I love England! Our guys all looked great and all were very happy with their schooling sessions and the quality of the footing. It was fun to see them riding at the same time as the British team, and to see just how really awesome our Canadian Eventers really look.

5. Tina and I had our first visit to Canada Olympic House, which is located at Trafalgar Square. It officially opens tomorrow. We went to pick up Family & Friends tickets….expecting to pick up Eventing’s which is the first equestrian competition, and very confused that LOCOG decided only to release the first days of Dressage Dressage, and Jumping Jumping……they aren’t release the Eventing tickets until late tomorrow afternoon. That will make for some interesting logistical planning on our end to get these tickets into the hands of Friends and Family before competition starts the morning of the 28th!

It’s now midnight, and tomorrow will start at 7am and last until 2 am (Opening Ceremonies!)

So I leave you with some pics, and ask your forgiveness for this being so brief.